DECIPHERING GLOBAL MAMMAL DIVERSITY THROUGH TROPHIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL GRADIENTS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53555/env.v1i1.2575Keywords:
mammal diversity, trophic guilds, environmental gradients, evapotranspiration, species richness, macroecologyAbstract
The diversity of mammals at a global scale is influenced by trophic organisation, climatic energy, water availability and geography. To carry out a quantitative macroecological assessment, 1,912 species of terrestrial mammals were selected for which a complete information on trophic, environmental and spatial aspects was available. Species were categorized as either herbivores, omnivores, or carnivores, and the midpoints of their ranges were used to assign them to the ten-degree geographical cells. The concentration of species, richness of families, richness of orders, richness of trophic groups and Shannon diversity of the trophic groups were examined as a function of temperature, precipitation, absolute latitude, actual evapotranspiration, and potential evapotranspiration. The herbivores accounted for 36.87% of the analyzed species, the omnivores accounted for 34.47% and the carnivores accounted for 28.66%. Species concentration increased in the positive direction with temperature, precipitation, and both measures of evapotranspiration and trophic diversity, and decreased in the negative direction with absolute latitude. The multivariable model accounted for 25.6% of observed variation, but none of the individual predictors were significant after simultaneous adjustment. There was no general trend in the median geographical range for the omnivores, but this was the largest for the carnivores in the wettest and most productive environments. The results suggest a mosaic, with overlapping environmental and trophic gradients, as the structure of global mammalian diversity. Reservations should focus on warm productive, trophically complex areas, and be aware of range-midpoint concentration, but not necessarily interpreted as confirmed local occupancy.
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